Steeped His Senses in Forgetfulness

It is quite a number of times when Daryl would forget something important and this worries me.

Last December 30, we went last-minute supermarket running before the New Year, and some things were not yet bought for the celebration.

Before that, Nanay told Papsie that she would give P1,000. I told Papsie not to get it anymore but he persisted on asking her before we left. Coincidentally, Daryl was still inside the house, coming from the CR. He received the money from his lola then went out. We were aboard the car already and I heard him asking Papsie if he is going to close the door or leave it open because an uncle was around playing mah jong. “Just pull the door,” went the reply.

We had not gone far yet, about two minutes past, when Papsie asked for the money. I saw Daryl’s eyes grew big and groped his pants as if looking for something. Then without a word wanted to get out of the moving car, face lost in fear. Papsie was mad and told him to stay put and we will go back.

There was a frantic search but the money was nowhere to be found. Daryl seemed to have lost that memory from the time Nanay gave him the money. He couldn’t remember what transpired next. He told us that his attention was about the door.

Of course, Papsie and I got mad, and told him off that he was not careful. Daryl looked forlorn and couldn’t say anything. I started lecturing about being responsible but couldn’t afford to be so mad because I was feeling pity at the same time.

We went to the supermarket later, after realizing that the money was gone. Inside the car, Papsie was lecturing again to Daryl who was just silent and looking miserable. Kay went to the rescue by saying, “Malay nyo, pag nagkatrabaho na si Daryl, babayaran kayo, doble pa.” (Who knows when he gets a job someday, he will pay you double.) We all laughed.

All went well and the food from Pao Tsin erased the bad incident. But I was troubled and affected by the thought that my son is very young to be so forgetful. This prompted me to research about memory and was pacified by this statement: Memory (psychology), processes by which people and other organisms encode, store, and retrieve information… Whenever people successfully recall a prior experience, they must have encoded, stored, and retrieved information about the experience. Conversely, memory failure—for example, forgetting an important fact—reflects a breakdown in one of these stages of memory. © 1993-2003 Microsoft Corporation. All rights reserved.

With that, I explored the possibilities. The time when he received the money, Daryl must be imagining things again from Encantadia, or from the books I gave him – Chronicles of Narnia. He was holding a towel which he likes to play with his hands. Then the concern about the door came. He encoded all these things and failed to register information about the money that was in his hand.

I was content, afterwards, of the fact that this happens to everyone, old and young alike.